If the problem is the bottles clanking into each other, don't put the crate in flat but somehow tilt it at a 30 degree angle or so, so that gravity holds the bottles against each other. Then wedge your towels into the high end of the crate to keep the bottles from bouncing.
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Daniel R HicksSep 9 '12 at 17:46

@Tom77 Beer in cans are hard to find in Germany. It might be my imagination, but I do prefer the taste of bottled beer.
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mirkSep 10 '12 at 6:42

@mirk, you say you are in Germany. How big is a "crate"? In Canada, we have what we refer to as a "case" which is 24 bottles. Anything else is referred to by the number of beer, either a 12-pack or a 6-pack.
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KibbeeSep 12 '12 at 12:52

@Kibbee A crate is typically 20 bottles of half a liter in Germany, although other sizes exist.
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mirkSep 12 '12 at 16:35

4 Answers
4

If the problem is the bottles clanking into each other, don't put the crate in flat but somehow tilt it at a 30 degree angle or so, so that gravity holds the bottles against each other. Then wedge your towels into the high end of the crate to keep the bottles from bouncing.

You can get Plastic bottle crates with dividers similar to the ones made of cardboard, but since it's plastic, and probably thicker, it might reduce the noise a bit more. Also the ones in the link look like they are foldable so would be easy to store when you don't need them. A little on the expensive side, but you could probably shop around and find something cheaper. You could also try building your own dividers out of corrugated plastic or even just corrugated cardboard.

That's a lot of work to minimize noise. At around $1 per bottle I'd rather risk breaking a bottle. The cardboard solution above is easier and does the same job.
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GlennSep 10 '12 at 22:20

@Glenn From what I'm reading, it's $31 for a single case, but a case contains 400 mesh sleeves. I don't know how you ended up with $1 per bottle. Chart below shows that if you get one case you end up at 8 cents a bottle, but you end up with a lot of extras. What I'd be worried about is whether or not they'd fit right on beer. They give these out at the liquor store, and they fit fine on 26 ounce and larger liquor bottles, but might slip off a beer bottle.
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KibbeeSep 12 '12 at 12:50

My $1 a bottle was referencing how cheap beer is. A typical bottle of beer costs roughly $1 whereas a bottle of liquor easily costs $10 or more. Those sleeves provide more protection than is necessary on a relatively cheap item, at a much larger time cost. For more expensive liquor the sleeves make a lot of sense.
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GlennSep 12 '12 at 17:09